After a crime of passion, pregnant Lesya faces seven years in a prison in Odesa, Ukraine, in the company of all women – mothers, murderers, new friends, and wardresses, including the devoted Irina. She is responsible for censoring letters and transferring children born there to institutional care. Much to her mother’s chagrin, the women’s prison represents the whole world to her. This perceptive and novel look at motherhood uses real people and actresses and blurs the lines between documentary and fiction.

Peter Kerekes

A native of Košice, Slovakia, he studied film directing at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, where he later became a lecturer. To date, he has focused primarily on documentaries (Cooking History, 2008; Velvet Terrorists, 2013). His latest film, 107 Mothers, which he co-wrote with Ivan Ostrochovsky, won the screenplay prize at the Orizzonti competition in Venice and the directing prize in Chicago and was screened at the San Sebastian IFF.